What shortscale has the thinnest neck?

[lank81]

I always love a thin neck (width of finger board) on the guitar. The Duo I just got has a decently thin neck and my strat has and even thinner neck. What shorties out there have a thin neck? The Jag HH Special (black w/ dragster buckers) just had too thick of a neck for me when I had it. I'd love to grab up on a couple more shorties in the year ahead especially if I can find a couple that have thinner necks.

[Mike]

Anything early 60s with an A width is going to be a slim as a Pepperami.

[MikeG]

Jagmaster neck is pretty thin.

[Dave]

Anything early 60s with an A width is going to be a slim as a Pepperami.

This. I have tiny hands and finding about A width necks is what led me to shortscales in general. Got a '65 A-width Stang neck and its great to play for me.

[Fran]

I think that 70s Bronco neck is the thinest i've owned.

[Richard]

I had two 78 Bronco necks and they were definitely the two chunkiest shortscale necks I've owned.

The thinnest I've had personally was a 72 Music Master B width neck but I've played the 60s A widths and agree with Mike and Dave that they're likely the thinnest around.

[lank81]

I did some googlin but didn't find anything yet but are there are any sites out there that list fender models and their neck style (A,B,C,etc.)?

[stewart]

i seriously doubt it. it only really applies to vintage necks anyway. most 60s mustangs and jaguars will have stock B width necks, but someone might have ordered an A, C or D specially.

as far as i know pretty much all mustangs/duos/musicmasters in 1964 had A width necks.

[lank81]

From what I could find it seems that Duos and Musicmaster mainly had these. I'd say by today's standards Mustangs are probably the thinnest @ 1.625 compared to Jags/Duos/Strats

[Phil O'Keefe]

Yeah, an A width neck is going to be the "thinnest", if you mean the width of the neck / fingerboard.

A = 1.5"

B = 1 5/8"

C = 1.75"

D = 1 7/8"

Almost all of the Fender shortscale necks you come across are going to be A or B in width. I don't recall ever seeing a C, and D width necks are exceptionally rare, even on other models. But Fender used to offer those widths as options, so anything's possible I suppose. But their standard width is a B width. I've always thought of this width dimension in terms of "wide" or "narrow", not thinness.

The other dimensions have at least as much influence on how a neck is going to "feel" to me as the width does. I've always liked what I call "thinner" necks - with thinness being determined by the thickness of the neck measured from the center of the top of the fingerboard to the center of the back of the neck. Probably the "thinnest" stock Fender necks I have ever owned were on my early 80s 25.5" scale Fender Bullets. I have four different 24" Fender necks here, and all of them are different in that regard; with the thinnest being the '94 MIJ Mustang neck that I have on my '75 Duo Sonic project guitar, and the original '75 Music Master neck.

The other important dimension in terms of neck "feel", at least for me, is the neck's "profile"; or how the back of the neck is shaped. Fender uses letters to describe the actual profile shape of the neck. V necks are sometimes called "boat necks", and are commonly seen on mid - late 50s era Strats. C necks are the classic "60s" shape, with more rounded "shoulders" or sides of the neck nearer to where it hits the fingerboard. With a D or U profile neck (common on 50s era Telecasters), those sides are a bit fleshier and the neck - even if it's the same B width and thickness, will feel "chunkier" in your hand. I have a gorgeous 1965 vintage Mustang neck that is in nearly mint condition that I was going to use on that project guitar, but it only lasted 5 minutes on there due to the D profile and me not getting along with it.

So to me, the neck's width is only one of the factors I consider... it also has to be fairly thin (front to back) and have a suitable profile too.

[lank81]

I'd say A/B for nut width with a Modern C Shape would be best for me. I enjoy my strat shape neck probably the best minus the scale length.

[stewart]

Probably the "thinnest" stock Fender necks I have ever owned were on my early 80s 25.5" scale Fender Bullets.

yeah, my 82 bullet had a crazy thin neck. it was like they'd forgotten to stick the fretboard on. i liked it though, really easy to play.

[Berto]

80's peavey t-30

[gator789]

i have a mosrite kurokumo from japan with humbuckers....it has a thinner neck than my mij mustangs , vista jagmaster and univox high flier and ive had a supersonic....its very thin....but they are hard to comeby....good luck with your search dude...

[weeping_moon]

the compstang neck are pretty thin or the jag-stang neck.

[DGNR8]

This 59 Musicamaster A width is pretty slight. But it's also a fret shorter than a 24. It would take some getting used to.

I use THIS reference site more than ANY other (after SS of course).